


A Twist of Fate

by Smidget



Category: Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
Genre: A/H, AU, Alternate Universe, Angst, Dark, Dark Romance, Drama, Dubcon/Noncon, F/M, Fighting, MPD, Romance, Torture, Violence, gory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-08-29 22:41:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16752823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smidget/pseuds/Smidget
Summary: After a simple conversation turns into a devastating fight, our heroes' friendship looks to be over. In a desperate attempt to save it, Holly starts a chain of events that can only be played out to the end to possibly be stopped, and has to face the repercussions of her careless words.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So.. I was going to post this last night, but I feel asleep xD so, I've had this in my drive for a long time. The first few chapters are pretty old, but I've decided not to rewrite them both for times' sake and because I don't really know what I would change, minus the wording of some things, which seems rather pointless. It will be pretty dark and gory when we get into it, at least at points, so beware! Getting back to a bit of my darker roots here, as per a few requests ;) This first part is short, but I'm just going to start with that for now and see what everyone thinks! As I said, the next few chapters are written, so this should be continued shortly!

Prologue

His words made her heart shatter. 

Hell... She loved him too, so much, but she couldn't admit that. She wasn't sure why, she just... Couldn't. 

But she also couldn't tell him no just because. 

The words rolled off her tongue; the lies weren't exactly truthful, because, well, she was lying, wasn't she? But they came out mostly smooth, to her credit.

"I can't love you. I don't love you, Artemis. I'm sorry, but it is what it is."

"It's a lie."

"It isn't."

"It is. I can tell." His eyes gleamed - hurt and pain glowing in them, making them glaze over as water coated his eyes and he blinked several times to hold it in. "You don't have to agree to be with me, Holly, but don't I at least deserve the truth?"

She snorted, and then, unbidden, the words flew from her mouth. "How hypocritical, coming from you. You're the biggest, best liar I know - behind maybe Opal."

He flinched visibly, and instantly she felt bad. Opal hated him as much as she hated Holly. She was evil; his enemy for gods' sake! Why had that come out of her mouth? All she managed to do was hurt him more - that much was visible.

"I am nothing like Opal," he whispered, clearly shocked by this turn of events. What the hell was she thinking? 

And her next statement just made it worse. "Are you sure?" 

His jaw dropped. "You think that of me? Really? After everything?"

She didn't get that chance to reply. She was lost in thought, mortified at her own words, but she couldn't even say they weren't true. She meant it. But she shouldn't have said it. Hell, I just dug the grave for our friendship... 

He stood up, placing his hands on the surface of the table. "Fine then. You want me to be like Opal? I'll be like Opal. Get the hell out, and don't come back unless you plan on becoming a permanent guest here. And I'm not talking about living in the guest room." 

Then he stormed out, shutting the door behind him and going to his study. He locked himself in and didn't look back at her, didn't even wait for her to leave.

But leave she did. There was nothing else left to do... right?


	2. Chapter 2

1.

She resisted the urge to sob the whole way back down to Haven. She wanted to, badly, so badly, to give into the urge, but then everyone would know something was wrong. And she didn't want everyone to know - especially not everyone. The bombarding she would be sure to get would probably make her head explode at that point. She wasn’t altogether sure that it wouldn’t explode anyways.

She had lost her best friend.

It took most of the ride for what had actually happened to sink in, but the hurt was there long before that. Her heart was ahead of her head - a common problem for her - but this time, it was on something that seemed more severe than it was. It felt like it was worse than Turnball, the B’wa Kell, hell, even Opal…

Opal… Frond help her, but Holly hated that pixie, now more than ever. And then, as she slowly let her anger eat away her sadness and hurt, the feeling overwhelmed her. She might have lashed out at something had the thought not popped into her head, but once it did, the fight and the fury both rushed out of her as she fell in a heap back into her seat. I wonder if Artemis feels the same way right now...

And there it was. He was. In her thoughts even though right now she should probably be trying her hardest to forget about him. In due time she would. But now she needed to mourn, and the urge could be controlled no longer. She broke out into sobs, and, as the shuttle landed, she let it park itself and climbed out, running towards her flat as fast as she could with her head down. She didn’t even bother to clock out or let anyone know she was back.

oOoOoOoOoOo

She went straight home, but it only aroused much suspicion. Foaly was the first at her door the next morning.

She refused to answer the door, but what she didn't consider was that Foaly had designed her locks - he could deactivate them and get in without batting an eye. As a result, she came out from getting her coffee to find the centaur sitting in her living room. 

"Not coming to work today?" he asked dryly. 

Holly's eyes widened, and she quickly ducked her head and headed for her room. 

"Yeah, I, um, don't feel so good today. I'm staying home," she said uncomfortably, not looking up. It wasn't technically a lie; the sadness and anxiety that were curdling in her stomach were making her physically sick. 

"Oh, really. And you didn't even bother to call in?"

"I...." She sighed and mentally cursed herself. He was right; she hadn't. She should have known someone would investigate when she didn’t. "Look, I forgot, okay? I'm sorry. I'm going back to bed now."

She made to scurry off, but he grasped her by the arm and turned her towards him, stopping her. "Look, I know something happened with Artemis," Foaly said, dropping the pretense. "I need to know what's going on to help though."

Holly closed her eyes and swallowed, sinking down in her chair. "There's no helping us this time, Foaly," she said quietly, after a minute. "I messed up big time."

The centaur sighed and shook his head, flopping down in the chair opposite her. “It couldn’t have been anything worse than what he’s done to you before,” he said as he settled in beside her. “I mean, really. What could top kidnapping you, lying to you, almost costing you your job, not to mention your life-”

Holly wasn’t listening. She was staring at a picture on her mantel. It hadn’t really been taken with consent from either of them - it was a clip Foaly hijacked from security footage of her and Artemis together, during the whole catastrophe with the C-Cube thing, but she couldn’t bring herself to care - it was a picture, with them both in it, and that in itself was enough for her now. 

“I topped that,” Holly finally said, sullenly, not even caring that Foaly was still speaking. “Gods, Foaly, I hurt him bad enough he threatened to abduct me again and threw me out. Artemis! And he threw me out!” She dropped her head into her shaking hands, attempting to blink away tears. 

Foaly sighed and got up from his chair, moving to stand over her and place a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Tell me what happened,” he said quietly, pulling her close and cradling her against his side. 

The tender gesture was nearly enough to make her break completely. Holly lifted her head from her hands and swiped her sleeves over her wet eyes. “He-” Holly started to say, but then she had to stop and clear her throat before she could continue. “He called me up because he said he needed to talk to me, and that it was important. I was so worried something was wrong… I rushed up there. You should know that much - you gave me the visa.” Foaly nodded solemnly, so she went on, rubbing her eyes. “He.. He told me he loved me,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “And I told him that I didn’t love him. And he didn’t believe me, which I suppose was fair considering I was lying, but Foaly, you know it would never work and I just was trying to keep us both from getting hurt-”

“Holly,” Foaly interrupted. He squeezed her shoulder again, a bit harder this time. “Take some deep breaths, then continue. I get why you’re so upset, but-”

“No, you don’t, because I didn’t get to finish!” Holly half-yelled at him, but she was sobbing to hard for it to really have any vehemence behind it. She took a breath. “I had to make him believe I was telling the truth, and I just… I was trying to figure out how to make him believe it. The first thing that I thought of was Opal… and she popped into my head and then just kinda came out of my mouth.” She looked down, ashamed and unable to meet his eyes anymore. 

Foaly sighed and hugged the elf to him, letting her bury her head in his horsey side and cry until she finally ran out of tears. Eventually her sobs subsided and she relaxed against him, still trembling and sad, but no longer crying. Her head ached as she pushed herself back off of him. 

“I’m a horrible person,” Holly mumbled. “I broke his heart and then turned around and compared him to his mortal enemy. I said he was just as bad as Opal… if not implied that he was worse. Artemis, just like Opal? Once upon a time, maybe, but now?”

Foaly patted her shoulder. “He has his moments,” he said slowly, “But I agree. That was wrong of you. I understand why you said it, but...he won’t. It’s no wonder he threw you out. Anger is a much easier emotion to manage than pain.” He pushed her back gently, pushing back her hair and meeting her now bloodshot eyes. “Just give him a few days, Holly. Let it sink and let him cool down. I’ll get you a visa for a refill this weekend, since it’s a full moon. Root won’t question it. You can go see him then.”

Holly looked away. “What if it’s not enough time and he’s still mad?”

“Then he’s still mad. Explain it to him, Holly. You can make him calm down.” He squeezed her shoulder. “What do you think the worst that will happen is? He could abduct you and throw you back in the cell, but it’s Artemis. He’d come to his senses within a day, and if he doesn’t...I’ll keep you linked in. We can track you and go in and get you.”

Holly sighed and looked down, nodding slowly. She could think of a lot of ways that his idea could go wrong. Not that she wanted to, but it was like Artemis had once told her: plans don’t always translate smoothly from paper to reality. She flinched at the thought and sat back. “You’re right,” she told Foaly hoarsely, even though she wasn’t entirely sure he was. “I’ll just give him and few days and go sort it out once he’s calmed down.”

“That’s a girl.” He squeezed her shoulders. “Stay home and get some rest. I’ll take care of Root. Sort yourself out. If you can’t come tomorrow, just give me a call.” 

Holly nodded and looked at her coffee. “Okay. Thanks, Foaly.”

The centaur nodded and left.

Holly waited until she was sure he was gone, then went and dumped out her coffee. She made tea instead, going and settling back down in her armchair. She stared into it until it got blurry, then laid back and closed her eyes, her chest aching. She missed Artemis already. Was he as miserable as she was? Was he in as much pain as her, locked away in solitude and suffering?

She sat up. He probably was. Truth be told, she was wasting her time by waiting, wasn’t she? She now had two whole days off work guaranteed, and Artemis probably wasn’t doing anything either. He tended to sulk in solitude on good days. She should just go see him now, and clear it up, and end both of their suffering...assuming they could both keep it together for long enough. 

Holly nodded to herself, getting up and going to get dressed. Ten minutes later, barely thrown together in a pair of old jeans and a purple turtleneck, Holly slipped on her communicator ring and left.


	3. Chapter 3

2.

Holly flew up to the manor’s front door.

To be completely blunt, she hardly remembered getting there. The normally long journey didn’t seem to take any time at all. She dazedly remembered somehow lying her way through security to get a shuttle to the surface and arriving topside. It was storming in Ireland when she arrived, but she hardly noticed as she got out and flew up high, floating among the storm clouds. She was soaked in minutes, but she hardly noticed. All she felt was a sort of…. numb detachment. Even the cold hardly bothered her.

She hovered a few feet above the steps so she could reach the bell. She didn’t bother to shield, not caring, and probably not able to anyway, cold as she was. She was almost vibrating already.  
Holly pressed the bell.

Nothing happened. She didn’t even hear the distant sound of the doorbell ringing inside the manor. Frowning, she waited a handful of minutes and pressed it again.

This time, it was only a few minutes before the door opened from the inside. Butler stared grimly down at her soaked form. “Holly,” he greeted, but his tone wasn’t as welcoming as it had always been. If anything, he sounded more somber than usual.

Holly shivered and looked up at him. “H-hi. W-where’s A-Artemis?” She hadn’t noticed until she tried to speak that her teeth were chattering.

Butler looked down at her for a long minute before sighing and shaking his head slowly. He stepped away from the door, holding it open enough for her to slip through. A blast of warm air hit her, and she shuddered. “You’d better come in,” he said at last. “You’re going to freeze to death out there.”

Confused, but not protesting, Holly stepped inside, watching Butler as he pulled the door shut behind her. “S-so w-where is he?” she asked again. 

Butler turned and looked down at her again. Finally, after another minute, he turned away again. “He’s not here,” he said simply, starting to walk towards the kitchen.

Holly followed him, uncomprehending. “W-what? But...w-where is he then?”

He didn’t stop, didn’t even glance back at her. “He’s not here, Holly. We don’t know where he went. He just left.” 

“Left?” Holly repeated. The warm air had finally warmed her up enough her teeth stopped chattering together. “When? Why? That doesn’t make any sense. I mean...you’re his bodyguard. Why would he go anywhere without you?”

“You ask me like I know. I just told you I don’t. And as for why, the only thing that makes sense is it has something to do with you.”

“Me?” Holly stopped in the doorway of the kitchen. Butler continued in without looking at her. “What does him picking up and leaving have to do with me?”

“Well, I imagine it has something to do with whatever you two fought about yesterday,” Butler told her as he returned to the stove, stirring something that was in a pot atop it, “Considering he took off shortly after you did.”

Holly frowned. That...didn’t sound like good news at all to her. Where could he possibly have gone? How was she supposed to chase him down to talk to him now? Especially if he didn’t want to be found...well, it was a safe bet that she wouldn’t find him. 

Feeling more guilty with each second that passed, Holly looked at Butler again. “You really don’t have any idea where he went? At all?”

“He didn’t exactly check with me before leaving, Holly,” Butler snapped, sounding irritated. 

“Yeah, but...you’re his bodyguard, Butler. Don’t you have some way you can track him or something?”

Butler stopped stirring and turned to look at her. “Holly, I’ve told you everything I know. Trust me, if I knew where he went, I’d tell you. He looked pretty miserable before he left, and more than slightly ticked off. I usually tracked him from his phone or some technology, in the rare case I ever left his side, but he didn’t take any of it with him. He’s not stupid. Most of his clothes are still here, and nearly all his possessions, including the phone and even his laptop. Alright?”

It most certainly wouldn’t have been alright, but suddenly Holly had an idea. “So you can’t track him...but maybe I could.. if he still had his communicator ring.”

Butler sighed and turned back to the stove. “I don’t know, Holly,” he said, suddenly sounding tired. “I have no idea if he still had it on or not. I didn’t see it when I searched his room, though.”

Holly nodded. She didn’t have much hope of it, but even if he wasn’t wearing it, perhaps he still had it with him. Assuming, of course, that the reason Butler couldn’t find it wasn’t because he had smashed it to smithereens, whether out of anger or desire not to be caught at wherever he went off to.

She was starting to feel as tired as what Butler had just sounded. She sighed and shook her head. “Alright. Well, I’ll give it a shot. I’ll let you know if I find anything for it.”

Butler nodded. “You’re welcome to check his study and his room over again to see if you can find anything I may have missed before you go. Maybe you’ll have better luck than I did.” 

Holly nodded. “I think I’ll take you up on that. Just to be safe.” She smiled wearily at him and walked out of the room.

Heading upstairs, she checked his bedroom first. It was exceptionally neat, as always - maybe even a little more so now, as if the human had taken the time to clean up before leaving. Frowning to herself, she started checking the room over. She found nothing. Then she moved on to his bathroom, since it was adjoined, and finally to his study. 

All of them came up absolutely clean...literally. All of them were cleaned to perfection, pristine, and most importantly (and disappointingly), nothing was out of place. Everything was there, and she found nothing, no hint at all of where the human had taken off to. Her only consolation was that there actually was one thing missing, one very important thing.

Artemis’s communicator ring. It was still gone, nowhere to be found. More than likely, this meant that he had either destroyed it, hidden it extremely well, or taken it with him. 

There was only one way to find out, and that was to try to track it. If it was destroyed, it would be unlocatable. If it were hidden, then it was more than likely here at the manor, so it was a dead end. And if it came up somewhere else…

Holly activated her communicator and, holding her breath, pressed down the tracking button.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize ahead of time for the fact this is so short. It should start picking up here shortly, though. This was just what I already had written, and I wanted to get something up. I am on Christmas break now and I would like to get a lot done so that I can keep updates coming consistently even when I get back into school. In the meantime, keep reading and reviewing! Definitely let me know what you think and what stories you want me to prioritize! And thank you to everyone who has supported me thus far! I love you all. Enjoy the story!

3.

It pinged. 

Holly stared at the ring for a moment in stunned shock, then grinned. It pinged. He hadn’t destroyed it, and, based on the location, he hadn’t left it or hidden it here, either. He probably had it with him. 

Great. That meant she had location. Now all she had to do was wait for the storm to pass and go to him. 

This would be hard.

oOoOoOoOoOo

As bad as the storm was in Ireland, it was ten times worse where Artemis was. It shook the foundations of his hideout and rattled the frame of the window he was currently sitting by. He stared out silently into the storm. He couldn’t see much through it; sand, mostly, and water, mixing together as the wind threw them both around. It was a mess - a serenely terrifying mess.

The storm hardly bothered Artemis now. It had been going on for so long he was almost desensitized to it. He didn’t jump at the thunderous booms. His heart didn’t speed up as things rattled around, including the house itself. Since he got there, he’d been practically catatonic, doing nothing but sitting and staring. Thinking.

Thinking, for the most part, about Holly. He tried not to, but his every thought eventually lead back to her. And there was no point in trying not to think at all - there was nothing else to do. Nothing except wait. Wait for his senses to return to him, for the storm to pass, and, most importantly, for Holly to arrive. 

Once again, the thought of her caused his emotions to stir, his thoughts to conflict. The genius’s mind was in turmoil. He still wasn’t sure what to make of her betrayal - if he could call it that. Should he be angry? Sad? Hurt? Truthfully, he was all of those things in turn, and more for that matter. But he couldn’t decide why or what he was most. His mind wouldn’t settle. So he left.

He knew when he left she would come after him… eventually, at least. And he knew, somewhere, inside, that he wanted her to. Why? He couldn’t decide. To hurt her back? To ask her forgiveness? To apologize? At some point over the course of the day, all of these were answers. 

He also didn’t know what would happen when she got there. He’d had a variety of different ideas, many of them that would turn out badly. He knew some were just results of his currently-unstable genius mind, but that didn’t stop them from sounding appealing at the time. The truth was, even if he thought he knew, even if he made a plan, he really didn’t know. Right now, thoughts of her were enough to inspire too much emotion - enough to make him act without thinking. When he saw her…

Maybe he’d grab her and kiss her in a desperate attempt to change her mind.

Maybe he’d go ballistic and lash out. 

Maybe he’d throw her in the basement again. 

Maybe he’d kick her out on sight.

Or maybe he’d do nothing but sit, stare at her, and wait for her to make the first move. That definitely sounded like the best option, but would it happen? 

He didn’t know. So his best option was to keep doing what he was doing. Just sit, wait, and think.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHH I'M SO EXCITED TO POST THIS CHAPTER! This took me forever to write because I wasn't sure how I wanted it to play out, and frankly because I'm scared of writing this story in general, but I'm really happy with the finished product and I think I've made a good lead in to the main point of the story. The real meat starts now! 
> 
> Also, sidenote: Everything else posted for this story has been written for over two years or so. I went through and tried to edit it to make it more of my current writing style before posting it, but it was basically what I wanted to say, it was just my wording that was different. So, yeah, I couldn't do much with it, but if any of the chapters before this seem like they were written by someone else or just not up to my usual par... well, you know why. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope this is as good for you guys to read as it was for me to write, and I hope you enjoy (as much as you can with a story like this, anyway). Please let me know what you think! With this story especially I'm interested to hear your theories. :) Love you all and thank you so much for sticking around! Enjoy!

4\. 

It soon became clear that the storm wasn’t going to end anytime soon. Artemis, it seemed, had known it was coming, and had taken a huge leap of faith by leaving when he did, seemingly sure he could beat it out and make it somewhere safe. The only kind of proof that they had that he did was now Holly’s communicator. The coordinates that tracking it had given here were on a small island, not too far off the coast - most likely the first and only place that he thought he could get to safely before the storm hit. 

Now Holly was staring into the storm from his bedroom window, fidgeting. It would be foolish to follow him into it, she knew, but then, wasn’t it more foolish to just let him take off alone? Especially if he was upset by their argument as she was. Who knew what state the genius had left in? The fact that he’d up and left without a word or his trusty bodyguard, or really even at all, was just proof that he wasn’t himself and probably wasn’t in his right state of mind. She hated to leave him alone for longer than she had to.

But it wasn’t safe to travel in this storm, in any type of vehicle, fairy or human. In all honesty, she was lucky that she had made it to the manor without incident, but she’d been in such an emotional state she hadn’t paid any mind to the weather on the way up. Now she knew better.

In the end, she stared out the window for so long that she lost track of time. It was a few hours before she saw a break in the storm - not in a relenting of the rain, but in a noticeable calming of the howling of the wind, and the absence of thunder and lightning appearing every few minutes. 

As soon as these things registered, she jolted into awareness and strapped on her wings, throwing open the window and launching herself into the open. She just knew that this was the best break she was going to get, and she was growing more desperate to get to Artemis by the minute. All signs she could see pointed to something bad, and she couldn’t help the sick feeling in her heart that something was wrong - something more than just his emotions running amok from her basic betrayal of his trust. 

And so she flew, even with the rain still pouring down around her, with the dark clouds still covering the sky, with the knowledge that it could open up again at any minute and that honestly the danger was still imminent, regardless of the momentary visual break. She flew for hours, consulting her communicator every once in a while to make sure she was still on the right track. 

It became apparent the closer to Artemis’s location she got that things indeed hadn’t actually calmed down. It was the opposite, actually - the closer she got to him, the worse the storm got. When she got close enough to see his location, she found herself shocked. It was a tiny island, only several miles across, maybe ten at most, and circling around the island inward revealed a small shack sat in the center, clustered around it by lots of trees. The trees, she couldn’t help feeling by the look of the shack, were the only reason the old thing had survived; the shelter they helped provide from the storm must have been greatly appreciated. It was old, and more than a lean to, but not by much; maybe a few rooms at most, from the look of the outside. Frond only knew how long it had been there.

How had Artemis even found this place? The likelihood that he had just happened upon it, especially in the storm, was incredibly low. He had to have known about it beforehand. Did he own it? What about the island? 

She shook the thoughts away. Artemis was sly creature by nature; she wasn’t surprised that she nor his family seemed to have any idea that this place existed before. And how he had ended up here didn’t really matter, so long as he was safe inside. 

Speaking of which, she’d paid little attention to her own safety. She was so numb from the freezing rain and wind that she couldn’t even feel herself shivering, although she knew she had to be. Her lips were blue, she was sure, and the tips of her ears likely were too. She was soaked to the bone. She’d bundled up in warm coats and multiple layers before leaving the Manor as she waited for the storm to calm down, but even still, over the course of the long journey, each one of them had become so waterlogged and wet that if anything they were keeping the water and the cold that had made it completely through her layers in instead of out. She needed out of these wet clothes and into something warm soon, or she’d come down with something quick. 

Her wings shuddered on her back, and she heard the engine sputter and miss for a moment before firing back up. She froze for a moment, her breath catching. This was what she got for paying so little attention to the storm and her surroundings. It could have been doing that the whole time and she wouldn’t have noticed. These wings were her own pair that she kept at her flat. They were old to start with, and now she’d pushed them this whole way here…

As if on cue, the engine stuttered again, and this time, there was no firing back to life. Her wings died, and she dropped like a stone, plummeting towards the ground at incredible speed. 

It was a testament to her piloting skill that she managed to control them enough to turn her plummet into something more like an ungraceful glide towards the ground, but with the wind and how high she was falling from, there was no controlling the speed of her fall. She crashed into the ground and slid with enough force to leave a path, bouncing a few times before settling completely onto the ground. 

By the time her body had stopped bouncing and moving, Holly was unconscious. 

She came around sometime later, although how long, with how dark the sky was and the apparent absences of any clocks, was impossible to know. 

She was laying on a mat in the corner of the room, low to the ground, covered with a rough wool blanket. She groaned involuntarily when she tried to move. She was injured, that was for sure, and whoever had dragged her in and tossed her here hadn’t been kind enough to do anything more about the state she’d been in than toss this itchy blanket over her. 

She forced herself to sit up, biting back another groan while doing so. The house looked as old and barren on the inside as she’d imagined. It might have been someone’s home, once, but it had fallen into disrepair. It was clean, small and functional, but sparsely furnished and dimly lit with candles that were placed in odd places all over the room. It just had this barren look to it that screamed that someone had taken everything and ran, leaving it to whatever happened by it. Apparently, that was Artemis.

The male in question was sitting across the room from her in an old rocking chair, staring blankly at the window. He seemed to be the only one around, and so had to have been the one who brought her in, but he didn’t show the slightest bit of acknowledgement to her presence. She could have been a ghost for all he seemed to notice or care. 

She sat up a bit, pushing herself to the edge of the cot. “Artemis?”

No response. The human didn’t flinch, didn’t even seem to hear her. 

She hopped up, running her hands through her hair. Everything hurt, from her achy arms and legs to the gouges she was certain she could feel on her back, but she only half-noticed, forcing herself to block out the pain in favor of reaching her friend.

Her body, however, didn’t seem to agree with this idea, and she collapsed in front of him, her legs too weak to support her. She grunted in pain, struggling to get up.

For the first time, the human seemed to notice her. He glanced at her, but his eyes were vacant, unrecognizing, and he regarded her with as much interest or recognition as one views a particularly irritating rodent running around the floor while they’re trying to focus on something else. He tilted his head, watching her struggle in silence, showing no hint of… well, anything at all, really. 

Holly didn’t like this. This wasn’t her Artemis. This wasn’t even her broken boy. The way he was looking at her… it was like he was someone else entirely. 

She managed to get up, stumbling the last few steps to him before going down again. This time she caught herself, on his chair, falling into his legs. She found herself blinking spots from her eyes and suddenly realized that she might have been much worse off than she’d previously realized. “Artemis…” she breathed. “Help me.” 

He just looked at her, tilting his head and regarding her with those blue eyes she’d come to know and love, but now seemed to dark, darker than she remembered. And then they flashed, and he blinked, and his mouth twisted up into a cruel smirk that she hadn’t seen in years. Her heart skipped a beat, her mouth suddenly going dry. This was Artemis. It had to be, no matter how impossible it seemed, or how odd he was acting. Surely he wouldn’t…

Then he struck, and she just had a moment to realize how wrong she was before her injuries and shock and the force of the hit she’d just took knocked her out. 

“There is no Artemis here,” the body of her friend said darkly, and the tone was enough to send a shiver down her spine. And that was the last thing she saw or heard before everything went black.


End file.
